Contents: Introduction; Part I Retributions: Varieties of retribution, John Cottingham; A taxonomy of retributivism, Leo Zaibert; Punishment, Alan Brudner; Retributivism, Thom Brooks. Part II Retribution and Desert: Marxism and retribution, Jeffrie G. Murphy; Does it matter if the death penalty is arbitrarily administered?, Stephen Nathanson; Three mistakes of retributivism, David Dolinko; Why punish the deserving?, Douglas N. Husak; Competing conceptions of modern desert: vengeful, deontological, and empirical, Paul H. Robinson; Retribution and capital punishment, Thom Brooks. Part III Proportionality: How to make the punishment fit the crime, Michael Davis; Justice, civilization and the death penalty: answering van den Haag, Jeffrey H. Reiman. Part IV Retributivist Emotions: The varieties of retributive experience, Christopher Bennett; The moral worth of retribution, Michael S. Moore. Part V Retribution and Mercy: Equity and mercy, Martha C. Nussbaum. Name index.